Development of Computer-Aided Inspection System with CMM for Integrated Mold Manufacturing

An interactive and integrated inspection system has been developed for molds having sculptured surfaces with some basic features, such as; holes, slots and bosses. Features to be inspected can be chosen in the CAD environment. Then the inspection planning is to be done for each feature, respectively. For the accurate measurement of sculptured surfaces, the distribution of measurement paints can be controlled to be uniform, curvature dependent or hybrid of the two. The output of the planning is the machine code for a specific CMM having CNC capability. The measured data are to be transferred back to the CAD system, compensated by the form error calculation, and the evaluated errors are displayed graphically. High degree of CAD/CAM/CA. integration is demonstrated by implementing the developed system to real molds.